Department of Health and Social Care

Huntington's Disease: Health Services

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that patients with Huntington’s disease can access a wide range of NHS healthcare to manage their complex conditions.

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that Huntington’s disease patients receive (a) more options, (b) better support, and (c) joined-up care through the NHS Long Term Plan.

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that people with Huntington's disease receive adequate care and support during the covid-19 outbreak.

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with the Huntington's Disease Association on supporting NHS staff who care for people with Huntington's disease.

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking improve (a) treatment and (b) care for people with Huntington’s disease.

Jo Churchill: The Government is committed to improving the lives of those who live with rare diseases. Patients with Huntington's disease have access to a range of services, including the services of their general practitioner, associated health professionals, neurology services, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, local mental health services for patients and their families, palliative care where appropriate and online resources. NHS England also commissions neuropsychiatry services for adults and children which provide assessment and treatment for patients with conditions such as young onset dementia including Huntington’s disease.NHS England continues to consider the impact of COVID-19 on patients with rare diseases and look at what services can continue to be delivered successfully through virtual communication technology such as telephone consultation and videoconferences. Where services do need to be delivered face-to-face, including the diagnosing of new cases, NHS England will work with providers to ensure that patients have a safe journey through the hospital to the treatment area.The Government published the new United Kingdom Rare Diseases Framework in January 2021. The new Framework provides the high-level direction for rare diseases in the United Kingdom over the next five years, including four priorities that were identified using results from the 2019 National Conversation on Rare Diseases: helping patients get a final diagnosis faster, increasing awareness of rare diseases among healthcare professionals, better coordination of care; and improving access to specialist care, treatment and drugs.The Framework will be followed by nation-specific action plans that will be developed in close consultation with stakeholders, including patient representative groups such as Genetic Alliance UK, of which Huntington’s disease Association are a member. The plans will also be supported by the continued delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan, as well as recent publications such as Genome UK which outlines the future for improving support for those with genetic rare diseases.

Children: Day Care

Bell Ribeiro-Addy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will have discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretary of State for Education on the potential merits of providing financial support to the wraparound childcare sector during the covid-19 outbreak to tackle childhood obesity.

Jo Churchill: Officials at the Department for Health and Social Care have regular discussions with colleagues in Her Majesty's Treasury and the Department for Education on delivering the measures set out in ‘Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives’ to help achieve our ambition to halve childhood obesity by 2030.

Maternity Services: Coronavirus

Ms Harriet Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that the normal standard of pregnancy care continues during the covid-19 outbreak.

Ms Nadine Dorries: The National Health Service has made arrangements to ensure that women are supported and cared for safely through pregnancy, birth and the period afterwards during this pandemic when there will be extra pressures on healthcare services.Throughout the pandemic, NHS England and NHS Improvement have been guiding maternity services to prioritise maintaining safe and personalised maternity care by making adjustments to service provision only where necessitated by the local impact of COVID-19.Wherever possible, services have been asked to reinstate a fully personalised approach to meeting the needs of individual women and their families and the level of care contacts and choice options available to women and their partners across the maternity pathway.

Coronavirus: Travel

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of whether social media influencers should be permitted to travel abroad on employment grounds.

Ms Nadine Dorries: Under the current restrictions, it is against the law to leave home without a reasonable excuse. This does not include going on holiday for leisure.

Mental Health Services: Nurses

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Mental Health Nurses there were in Yorkshire and the Humber region in (a) 2010 and (b) 2020.

Ms Nadine Dorries: NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), but not staff working in primary care, local authorities or private sector providers commissioned by the National Health Service.In the Yorkshire and the Humber region, there were 3,983 full-time equivalent mental health nurses employed in October 2010 and 3,291 in October 2020.

Coronavirus: Babies and Parents

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether parent and baby groups are permitted to meet during the January 2021 covid-19 lockdown restrictions; and what guidance his Department has published on such groups meeting.

Ms Nadine Dorries: Support groups, such as baby and toddler groups, for the provision of support for parents and their children, that are necessary to deliver in person, can continue with up to 15 participants where formally organised to provide mutual aid, therapy or any other form of support. This includes where parents and carers meet other parents and carers with or without their young children. Children under five years old are not included in the 15-person limit.Guidance on such group meetings is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-lockdown-stay-at-home

Dentistry: Re-employment

John Penrose: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2021 to Question 140762, whether retired dentists who cannot re-register are unable to take a patient's medical history, draw up the covid-19 vaccine from vial to syringe and undertake other basic tasks; and what assessment he has made of the potential effect on the speed of the vaccination programme of retired dentists being able to undertake those tasks.

Nadhim Zahawi: Giving immunisations is usually a registered activity undertaken by registered healthcare professionals. However, due to the unprecedented scale of the vaccination programme, some tasks can be delegated to suitably trained, unregistered staff working under a National Protocol. An unregistered, retired dentist can apply to be an unregistered vaccinator and be appropriately trained and recertified as being competent to draw up and vaccinate within the COVID-19 vaccination programme.

Department for Education

Schools: Coronavirus

Mr Andrew Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what additional financial support his Department is allocating to schools to help with cleaning and testing costs incurred as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

Nick Gibb: The Department has provided additional funding to schools, on top of existing budgets, to cover unavoidable costs incurred between March and July 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak that could not be met from their budgets. We have paid schools £102 million for all claims in the first claims window that were within the published scope of the fund, and we will shortly process claims made in the second window in December 2020.Last term, the Department announced the COVID-19 workforce fund for schools and colleges, to help those with high staff absences and facing significant financial pressures to stay open. It funded the costs of teacher absences over a threshold from 1 November 2020 until the end of the autumn term. We expect the schools claims form to be launched in spring 2021.The Department will also fund schools for costs relating to COVID-19 testing. We have published a workforce planning tool which illustrates the levels of funding available. Funding will be paid to schools who have conducted testing in respect of workforce costs and other incidental costs relating to testing, such as waste disposal.The Government is delivering catch-up funding worth £1 billion, including a ‘Catch-Up Premium’ worth a total of £650 million to support schools to make up for lost teaching time. Alongside this, we have also announced a new £350 million National Tutoring Programme for disadvantaged pupils, including the National Tuition Fund for students age 16-19.Finally, schools have continued to receive their core funding throughout the outbreak, regardless of any periods of full or partial closure, with this year marking the first year of a three-year increase to core funding - the biggest in a decade. This will ensure schools can continue to pay their staff and meet other regular financial commitments.

Vocational Education: Assessments

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what measures he plans to put in place to assess students studying for BTEC exams in 2021.

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to set out his plans for measures to assess students seeking BTEC qualifications.

Gillian Keegan: Written exams scheduled in February and March should not go ahead unless they are taken to demonstrate occupational competency. Alternative arrangements will be needed to award qualifications that are taken instead of, or alongside, GCSEs and AS/A levels, including many BTECs used for progression to further or higher education, where the primary method of assessment is written exam(s). Our joint consultation with Ofqual proposed this is also the case for April onwards. We sought views through the consultation on the detail of these alternative arrangements and the qualifications that should be in scope of this approach. The department’s joint consultation with Ofqual closed on 29 January. The department and Ofqual will work together to publish our decisions by the end of February, once the consultation responses have been analysed. Further information on this is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-alternative-arrangements-for-the-award-of-vtqs-and-other-general-qualifications-in-2021.

Vocational Education: Assessments

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will set out his Department’s timeframe to respond to the consultation on alternative arrangements for the award of VTQs and other general qualifications in 2021; and what discussions is he having with Ofqual to ensure final plans to assess BTEC and other vocational qualifications this summer are published as soon as possible.

Gillian Keegan: On 15 January 2021, the department, together with Ofqual, launched a joint consultation which sought views on a range of proposals around alternative arrangements for the award of vocational and technical qualifications in summer 2021. The consultation closed on 29 January 2021.We recognise the need to provide clarity to students and the sector as soon as possible and we are working with Ofqual to publish our decisions by the end of February, once the consultation responses have been analysed. Further information on the consultation is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-alternative-arrangements-for-the-award-of-vtqs-and-other-general-qualifications-in-2021.

Extended Services: Coronavirus

Thangam Debbonaire: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make financial support available to playscheme and breakfast club providers during the covid-19 outbreak.

Vicky Ford: We appreciate that the wraparound childcare sector, like many sectors, is facing unprecedented financial pressures as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. It is for this reason that the government has made a range of financial packages of support available for businesses to access throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. This includes tax relief, business loans or cash grants through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme, as well as a £594 million discretionary fund for councils and the devolved administrations to support local businesses that may not be eligible for other support, during the current national lockdown. More information on this can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus/business-support.Additionally, we have encouraged all local authorities to consider which local grants could be used to bolster this part of the childcare sector in their areas, to safeguard sufficient childcare provision for children of critical workers and vulnerable children. This includes funding streams such as the holiday activities and food programme. The expanded programme, which comprises a £220 million fund to be delivered through grants to local authorities, will be expanded to reach all local authority areas over the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays in 2021.The National School Breakfast Programme continues to be funded, and our suppliers Family Action along with Magic Breakfast are working closely with participating schools to make sure that children can still receive healthy breakfasts during this period, including for children staying at home.Family Action have reported that more than 1,000 schools in disadvantaged areas are registered to receive breakfast deliveries from this programme during the COVID-19 outbreak.

School Meals: Coronavirus

Claudia Webbe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will provide a list of (a) primary, (b) secondary, (c) academy and (d) free schools whose pupils are being provided with food packages by Chartwells.

Vicky Ford: The continuing provision of free school meals to children from out-of-work families or those on low incomes is of the utmost importance to this government.School catering contracts are agreed locally, and the department does not hold a contract with Chartwells UK or any other food company to provide free school meals or lunch parcels to children. We have guidance in place allowing schools to decide the best approach for their pupils. This can be through lunch parcels, locally arranged vouchers or the national voucher scheme.

Treasury

Beer: Excise Duties

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of reducing beer duty to taxation levels in other European countries.

Kemi Badenoch: The tax cuts at Budget 2013, 2014 and 2015 – followed by further duty freezes in 2016, 2017 and 2018 – mean that the average tax charged on a typical pint of beer is estimated to be 16p lower this year than it otherwise would have been since ending the beer duty escalator in 2013. All taxes are kept under review, including consideration of international comparisons, and any major announcements are made at fiscal events.

Self-Employed and Small Businesses: Coronavirus

Emma Hardy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what long-term plans his Department has to support small businesses and self-employed people throughout and after the period of covid-19 lockdown restrictions announced in January 2021.

Kemi Badenoch: Since March the Government’s priority has been to save lives and protect jobs, businesses, and livelihoods. To support workers and businesses across all sectors the Government has provided an unprecedented package of support worth more than £280 billion. As of 5 January, England entered nationwide restrictions to manage a new variant of Coronavirus. With these restrictions, businesses in retail, hospitality and leisure facing forced closure in England are eligible for a one-off grant worth up to £9,000 to help them through to spring. This is on top of the existing Local Restriction Support Grant (Closed) which will continue to offer businesses support of up to £3,000 for each month they closed. Local authorities are being provided with a top up to the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) worth £500 million, bringing the total value of ARG to over £1.6 billion. This grant ensures local authorities can support, on a discretionary basis, businesses not eligible for other grants but still affected by restrictions. Business grant policy remains a fully devolved area, with the Devolved Administrations receiving their share of this funding through the Barnett formula in the usual way. Businesses across the UK can continue to apply for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), which as of mid-December had supported 9.9 million jobs at the cost of over £45 billion, and its extension until the end of April 2021 will give many businesses and workers much-needed security. The Government has also extended the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) until the end of April 2021, with a boosted package of support providing the self-employed with grants covering 80% of average trading profits. So far SEISS has seen 2.7 million self-employed workers make claims under the scheme totaling £13.7bn. Businesses needing access to liquidity can also apply for guaranteed loans through various loan schemes, including the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme and the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, until the end of March 2021. Over 1.4 million small and medium sized companies have received government-backed loans, worth over £68 billion This support comes on top of billions of pounds’ worth of Rate Reliefs, tax deferrals, and other labour market schemes. As announced by the Prime Minister on 3 February, a gradual and phased approach to easing England-wide restrictions will be set out in the week beginning 22 February.

Hospitality Industry and Procurement: Coronavirus

Helen Hayes: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the (a) level of support provided to (i) the hospitality sector and (ii) its supply chains during the third covid-19 lockdown and (b) adequacy of that support in light of the cost of rent and pre-purchased produce.

Kemi Badenoch: The Government understands that this is a very challenging time for the UK’s hospitality sector and its supply chain. The Government is constantly reviewing its package of COVID-19 related support, to ensure that any decisions best meet the evolving public health outlook, and at the upcoming Budget the Government will outline the next stages of its plan for jobs to support businesses and families across the UK. In January, to support businesses through to the Spring, the Chancellor announced one-off top up grants for closed businesses worth up to £9,000. The cash is provided on a per-property basis to support businesses through the latest restrictions and is to help cover operating costs. This grant support is expected to benefit over 600,000 business properties, worth £4 billion in total across all nations of the UK. This grant comes in addition to the Local Restriction Support Grants worth up to £3,000 a month for closed businesses. A further £594 million is also being made available for Local Authorities and the Devolved Administrations to support other businesses not eligible for the grants, that might be affected by the restrictions, such as those businesses in the hospitality supply chain. This funding also comes in addition to £1.1 billion further discretionary grant funding for Local Authorities. The Government is also delivering support to the hospitality sector and its supply chain through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) which has been extended until April; Government backed finance through loan schemes, ‘Pay as You Grow’ long-term repayments options, a VAT cut, a VAT deferral for up to 12 months, a 12-month business rates holiday; and a moratorium on evictions to protect commercial tenants.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Plea Bargaining: USA

Dr Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the effect on the rights of UK citizens facing trial in US courts of the application of the US plea-bargaining process.

Wendy Morton: The US plea-bargaining process is a domestic policy issue for the US authorities. The assistance we can, and cannot, provide to British nationals abroad is set out in the publication 'Support for British nationals abroad: A Guide' on GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/support-for-britishnationals-abroad-a-guide).

Developing Countries: Health Services

Stuart Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to strengthen domestic healthcare systems in developing countries and increase the training of professionals to lead them.

Wendy Morton: The UK has placed strengthening health systems at the heart of our global health work to achieve Universal Health Coverage, end preventable maternal, newborn and child deaths and ensure country systems are prepared for and can respond to health threats, such as COVID-19.The UK has a wide portfolio of health system investments. This includes support to the multilaterals such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, Gavi the Vaccine Alliance and WHO. We provide strategic bilateral support at country and regional levels, share public health expertise with developing countries, support research and development and use our strong diplomatic networks at a country, regional and global level to support evidence-based health policies. We recognise that having a strong health workforce is an essential building block for an inclusive, resilient health system. Our health systems programmes support health workforce education and training, curriculum development, continuing professional development, qualification development, and national health workforce policy.

Hong Kong: British National (Overseas)

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what further steps the Government can take to protect BNO passport holders who do not wish to move from Hong Kong.

Nigel Adams: The UK will not look the other way on Hong Kong, and we will not duck our historic responsibilities to its people. We will continue to bring together our international partners to stand up for the people of Hong Kong, to call out the violation of their freedoms, and to hold China to their international obligations.

Ministry of Defence

Africa: Armed Forces

Stephen Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many armed forces personnel from (a) Ghana, (b) Uganda, (c) Ethiopia, (d) Tanzania, (e) Somalia, (f) Nigeria, (g) South Africa and (h) Mali trained at a defence establishment in the UK in each of the last three years, broken down by (i) institution and (jii) branch of service.

James Heappey: We are proud of the UK’s record of assisting African militaries to improve professional standards, fight terrorism, contribute to UN peacekeeping missions, and promote democratic accountability. Since 2017-2018 we have provided a total of 372 training places to military personnel from Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. Of these 372 training places, 271 were provided by the British Army, 25 by the Royal Air Force, and 76 by the Royal Navy. Of the 372 training places, 21 were provided by the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, 24 by the Royal College of Defence Studies, 13 by RAF Cranwell, 68 by the Defence Academy, and 10 by the Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth.

Navy and Merchant Shipping

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to (a) commemorate Merchant Navy Day on 3 September and (b) promote the links between the Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy.

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions he has had with representatives of the Royal Navy on proposals to fly the Red Ensign from Royal Navy ships and shore establishments to mark Merchant Navy Day on 3 September 2021.

James Heappey: The Royal Navy has previously celebrated the close links between the RN and the Merchant Navy (MN) on both Merchant Navy Day and other occasions, and will continue to do so. In recognition of the close links between the RN and MN, all Naval Regional Commanders encouraged RN establishments within their regions to fly the Red Ensign on 3 September 2020. The intent is that this tradition will continue to grow in the coming years.

Home Office

Prime Minister: Official Cars

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that the Prime Minister's vehicle is manufactured in the UK.

Kit Malthouse: It is in the public domain that the Metropolitan Police Service provides a Jaguar for Prime Ministerial travel; this is an iconic British brand and Jaguar Land Rover’s headquarters are in the UK.

Department for International Trade

Trade Agreements: NHS

Stuart Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what safeguards are in place to ensure that the (a) price of drugs and (b) NHS including its services and patient data are not compromised in future trade deals.

Mr Ranil Jayawardena: The NHS, the price it pays for drugs and its services are not for sale. The United Kingdom’s published objectives for negotiations with new trade partners make it clear that we will not agree measures that undermine HM Government’s ability to deliver on our manifesto commitments to the NHS.The United Kingdom’s trade agreements do not undermine the safeguards that we have in place around health and care data. HM Government is clear that health and care data should only ever be used and/or shared where used lawfully, treated with respect, held securely and where the right safeguards are in place. The United Kingdom’s high standards of data protection will be maintained.

Trade Agreements: Maldives

Sir David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps her Department is taking to establish equivalent trading agreements between Maldives and the UK as exist with similar Commonwealth countries.

Mr Ranil Jayawardena: British agreements with similar Commonwealth countries were ‘rolled over’ from previous European Union (EU) agreements. My Hon. Friend will know that the Maldives did not have a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the EU.HM Government has not been able to negotiate trade deals with our friends around the world for almost fifty years. Now that we have control of our independent trade policy, the Department for International Trade is actively pursuing agreements with our trading partners, under an ambitious programme of work – including with the United States, Australia and New Zealand – as well as seeking accession to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.The United Kingdom and the Maldives already have a strong bilateral relationship. Trade in goods and services was worth £151m in 2020. In that context, we are working with the Maldivian Government to explore ways to increase trade and investment across a range of sectors of mutual interest, including food and drink, defence, education, fitness and health, and in environmental science and sustainable development.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Internet: Safety

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when he plans to introduce the Online Safety Bill.

Caroline Dinenage: In December we published the full government response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation. This set out the new expectations on companies to keep their users safe online. The Online Safety Bill, which will give effect to the new regulatory framework, will be ready this year.